Wavering Faith
by fishing2100
Summary: SI - Lane finds himself reborn into the world of One Piece - and it happens to be upon the Sky Island Of Brikans! With the foreknowledge of Enel coming to the island to destroy it - he makes the decision to live his life to the fullest and make an impression upon the world! The storyline will never be the same! Eventual pairing/possible Harem. Traveling with Luffy&crew GenderbentMC
1. Chapter 1

Wavering Faith

Just a quick note – this is my first FF story that I couldn't help but get out of my head. I'm open to all forms of criticism, but don't forget to encourage me as well! I'm pretty shy about this stuff! Also might be interested in someone using my story premise if you are committed to writing – and you think you can make it better! Ask for permission first! This is inspired by a lot of SI's but Dreaming of sunshine – a naruto fic by silver queen was the main inspiration!

Summary – A SI (overdone yes I know) where Lane will use his foreknowledge about the future to underhandedly get his way. Eventual devil fruit – pairing with unknown member / harem possibility. Eventual acceptance to being friends with luffy & crew but until then will be looking out for himself. This is rated M for language and potential lemons later.

Lane woke up with the falling of the sun outside – He could see the amber rays of light falling over the horizon from his window. He sighed in exasperation at himself - "another day wasted"... He mumbled under his breath. Trudging through the feeling of self-loathing that sunk under his skin, Lane got dressed in his typical blue jeans faded from use and striped button up shirt that he like to wear. Going outside to watch the last of the sun disappear, he headed over to the near convenience store to get a bite to eat as he had no food in his house.

Now don't get him wrong – Lane knew how to cook. In fact, his last job was at an Italian restaurant before they closed from the owner deciding he was getting old and no longer wanted to run the business. It was shortly sold to a wealthy master chef who was creating his new business, but would be closed for around half a year renovating. But the simple fact was, Lane was lazy. His motivation to keep his world going had simply run out, with a desire to escape into a world where he didn't fuck up.

Sighing again in exasperation at how he could possibly be so lazy, Lane wiped the crusty eye boogers from his eyes and walked down the road. He decided he would be getting a pizza from Seven-Eleven, simple and easy and could feed him for a couple of meals. Lane waited at the stoplight for it to change, starting across the road with the sign change. He heard some peeling down the road and looked to see a blue small toyota truck flying down the highway. 'Is this guy trying to hit me?' Lane wondered. He started running across the rest of the street, and watching the truck turned towards him getting much closer very fast. 'I won't make it, I can't die here! I can't!' Lane thought as he tried to turn around and avoid the oncoming truck. Unfortunately he was too slow and was reamed by the truck going over 90 on this highway stretch in town.

Lane remembered waking up in a hospital with blue gowned individuals surrounding him shouting something about the patient waking up and needed more anesthesia. His last thoughts before the world fled into his mind were 'I can't die here... If only I was reborn into a world that wasn't absolutely cruel...'

Lane found that it was extremely hard to think, let alone feel anything where he was. It felt like he was fading in and out of consciousness for a very long time, was he in a coma? No matter what he did he couldn't open his eyes or breathe, it felt like he was being utterly suffocated around him and couldn't bring his thoughts to the surface to escape wherever he was at.

This continued for some time, until at some point he could finally breathe again! It was like the world was reopened after being stuffed inside a crammed box. He tried to say something, but the only thing that came out was high pitched crying. 'This is weird...' It felt like his mental capacity was dummed way down, he couldn't connect the dots of anything or bring himself to coherent thought. When he opened his eyes, there was lots of bright colors and everything looked big. The visual feed he was getting was too much for his limited brain power and tried to ignore all of the sensations that he was receiving so he did the only thing that he could – cry and boy did he ever.

After a few months of this repeating process of trying to understand or create any coherent thought, eventually it became easier. He started touching things around him, feeling the world and opening his eyes to start to understand what had happened to him. There was something off about him though, it felt like he had something jutting out of his back. This was extremely frustrating for him, as he couldn't reach around himself as he barely had any control of his arms or any of his body parts. He would once again cry, it was really the only thing he could do right now, until he nestled against the warm mound and drank the warm liquid he was offered again.

About a half a year in, Lane noticed something was very very wrong around him. He was really small, and his thoughts were finally coming back to him. He was able to crawl, since his muscles were finally developing, and he finally got a good look around him. He was in what felt like a very large home, with two angels that looked endearingly at him. 'This must be a really weird version of heaven...' Lane thought as he looked up to the angels when the male came and rocked him back to the lull of sleep.

A few days later Lane thought he finally figured it out. The angels must be his parents and for some extremely strange reason he must have been re birthed into heaven. It would explain the curious objects that were jutting out of his back, constantly hurting. 'They must be wings like the angels who must be my parents...' He thought. Things were weird though. His body felt... wrong. It felt like he was missing his male anatomy, maybe since heaven was a place of no sin he wouldn't need it? And he knew that his "parents" called him by an entirely different name, Kaska.

A few months later and Kaska was walking around. By this point he knew that he had been reborn – and not as a guy either. His parents, whom she didn't know names of yet but simply called dad and mom (she tried really hard to get the pronunciation right) were all she could ask for in parents. They made sure she was always comfortable, and in a loving home nonetheless, even if they did get fed up with her sometimes! He had gotten glimpses of other people by now – and a few trouble-makers too! She was sure that it couldn't be heaven, but this was sure some weird rebirth... By now Kaska had a plan – this life she was not going to let it go to waste as her last! First she needed to develop her muscles, and she needed to appear intelligent, but not some sort of genius prodigy that was going to get her hauled away by the government! So Kaska vowed that she would show her parents the love that they deserved by being the ones to birth her, and she would be intelligent but play it down severely.

After Kaska was a year and a half old, her parents, Doug and Nicole, knew that something was very different about their child. She loved their affection, as any child did, but was constantly obsessed with doing things such as going outside and stretching, or doing some form of a weird sit up. There was even one event where they found kaska trying her hardest to lift up her dad's bed struggling as she might! All in all they found this extremely offsetting, she should be doing things kids found fun, she wouldn't hardly touch the baby toys that they had gotten her. Doug simply laughed it off, even though he knew something was different about their girl.

Kaska was pleased with the way her life was turning out. She was a little over 2 years now and she knew that her parents were off put with how she acted, but it didn't matter to her. She had a resolution made in her mind and she wasn't going to let her chance at a rebirth go to waste, she had to make sure that she was going to be the absolute best. She still showed them love and affection, but she was very independent. In fact, her father had gone out and gotten her a bar (that she had begged for that was suspiciously like a pull up bar) so she could be a monkey on it. And that's what he called her – his little monkey because she was always being active.

At 3 years old she had a massive shock to her, she realized that a lot of her amenities and normal household items came from an item she was familiar with, dials! These dials powered basically everything, and she slapped herself for not realizing sooner. This explained everything, the wings on her and her parents back, the fact that she had never been out of this city, she was in the world of One Piece. This brought her excitement, it wasn't something where you had godlike unreachable powers like in dragonball, and it wasn't a ninja with death and betrayal such as naruto, but it did bring her to realize that she would need a way of protecting herself from the greatest threat this era faced – pirates. Based on her knowledge of the One Piece universe – she could be on 2 islands that she knew of. One would be Skypiea which luffy and crew would visit, which wouldn't be pleasant as she would have to live under a "god" when he decided to come, or she would be living on the island of the Birkans, which would be infinitely worse as this was the island that enel destroyed before heading to Skypiea. This was knowledge that she needed though so she went over to her parents to ask.

"Mom, Dad" Kaska started. "Where do we live? What's it called im curious!" She masked in an excited tone. "Dear we live in the island of Birkans" Nicole said wondering why her daughter was curious as to such an idea. "Oh ok thank you!" Said Kaska politely as she wandered off again. 'This is really really really bad for me' Thought Kaska, now she had a ticking time bomb on her island before Enel got there, and there was absolutely no way that she could possibly stand up to that monster of a man who thought himself to be god. The first whisper of Enel being on her island, and she had to find a way out or she would be fried or having her brain picked by the lightning god for her foreknowledge of the future.

Thus Kaska started an intense training program, her parents weren't overtly worried since she had been training her whole life, but others on the island thought she was the distant and extremely weird kid that no one wanted to hang out with. Of course Kaska didn't mind, she didn't really plan on making friends when she knew that the island would be toasted soon to come. This did bring up a slight problem with her though, her parents were really nice people, she needed to make sure that they would also escape the lightning god that would soon come, she didn't know if he was born here or not, but based on his lack of wings she assumed he would eventually visit here and take up residence. So she would warn her parents, she needed to make sure she was alive though, if enel wasn't here for a while yet, perhaps she could join the straw hat crew since she knew there journey best and use them to make sure she lived a damn good life.

At seven, Kaska was truly an outcast from her society. No kids her age enjoyed being around her, and the society started shunning her parents too because Kaska was so weird. Of course they still had friends that hung out with her parents, but overall people looked down upon the child that knew nothing of social activities and only training. Kaska at this age already had a 6-pack, and most viewed her as extremely eccentric. Her parents still loved her though and accepted Kaska as who she was, which she truly appreciated. It would be extremely hard to get through the days here without the support of her parents. In a few months, she had a shock though. She was getting a sibling! Kaska didn't know how to take this at first, she somewhat forgot that not all of her household revolved around her. She accepted this fact though, but also was even more determined that she would have to save her baby sibling who wasn't born yet from the fate that would befall them soon enough.

Kaska was 8 years old now, and her parents finally had her baby brother. They named him Vasco, which gave Kaska a shock, he couldn't be Vasco shot from the blackbeard pirates... But then Kaska reminded herself that there was no way for him to be, the last names weren't the same, she sighed with a breath of relief. With a strengthened resolve, she knew she had to protect her baby brother from the onslaught to come.

At 10, Kaska finally started doing other things than strengthening her body. She knew that she had to strengthen her willpower, her resolve to fight. This was the key to unlocking the superpower of this world, Haki. If she could become a master of haki, then she could truly make her way in this world. However if she couldn't find a way to use this supernatural gift, then she would never amount to anything in the new world. So she took constant training trips into the verath, the soil that constituted this island, which many considered holy ground so she could hopefully learn something new about herself.

At twelve Kaska started puberty finally, she never could have imagined the pain that menstrual cramps could give someone! 'I had never imagined this would be so bad, I've never wished for myself to be my old gender as I have now' she thought. Still in spite of this she continued with her same routine, eating breakfast, going out to find herself, coming back for lunch and hanging out with her baby brub, and then leaving for her afternoon workouts and post supper routine. She had to confide in her mother about this pain and one really awkward conversation later about the birds and bees, her mother told her that it's something she will have to live with for the rest of her life. 'Ug this whole being a female thing is really irksome... Hopefully I can grow up to be as attractive as Nami or Hancock' she thought frustrated. She glanced in the mirror at home, admiring her light blonde hair that she moved out of her sky blue eyes, and thought maybe she could pull it off. But she still did look like a feminine guy, just more muscular than she found anyone her age with an 8 pack and filled out arms and legs.

Kaska was 15 now, and had C cups which really complimented her figure now. She had the attention of a lot of the kids her age now, well expect for the girls who looked on in jealousy. However she couldn't dwell on this because a blue sea traveler had decided to grace them with his holy presence, and Kaska knew she had to leave now. She heard about Enel from one of the villagers and how he displayed incredible prowess, striking down those who had disagreed with him from afar with his lightning devil fruit. She wasn't sure how developed his haki was though, so she knew she couldn't say anything about the situation that would result in her family or her being struck down. So she went home with her resolution in mind.

"Mom, Dad" Kaska began. "I don't know if I want to live here anymore, there seems to be someone new in town" she said begging them to read in between the lines. "What are you talking about dear this is our home you can't just leave." Said her mom. "Please Just let me at least take Vasco with me. I don't want to cause trouble and I really really REALLY want you to come with too" Kaska begged her family. "I don't know what's gotten into you girl but this is our home" Her father looked down disapprovingly. "Dad... Just promise me if things get rough you will leave. Please." Kaska begged with tears starting to roll down her cheeks. "Kaska, just go to your room and wait for supper please we don't need this okay? I will come and get you out when it's ready and don't you dare run out to go "train"." Said her father. Kaska could only nod and left the living room, she knew that Enel would at some point destroy the island, but her parents just wouldn't listen to her. She couldn't tell them of her foreknowledge or make them leave their home, but she must save her brother. She went over to Vasco's room, and let herself in her brothers door. "Vasco, please would you come to train with me?" Kaska said innocently. "I heard what you were talking about to mom and dad I can't leave home and I'm going to tell mom and dad" Said her 7 year old brother. Kaska simply nodded and went to her room, packing up her necessities, clothes hygiene products, the things she would need to survive. With a long forlorn glance at the door behind her, Kaska steeled herself and left the window. Sadly, Kaska reached a cloud balloon that she had made sure she had prepped for this coming day, and rode it off of the edge of the island. Her last thought was 'I sure hope that I can land near an island as strong a swimmer as I am I won't survive that long'.

AN: Let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Wavering Faith Chapter 2 -

Quick note before hand – some of you loved this some of you hated the gender of the MC, well I'm going for something unique you know? Stick around if you want it'll get better I promise :) For the one who decided I wasted my own story's potential, I'm sorry! This is my first time go easy lmao!

Before we start again the cloud balloon is a theory from the short of Enel's journey to the moon, from a cover story. The balloon is what is sounds like, a balloon made from cloud. Kaska purposely made hers not dense enough to float, and slowly descend instead.

Disclaimer - I don't own One Piece - all of those rights go to Eiichiro Oda who dedicated his life to his story!

As Kaska floated through the clouds riding her cloud balloon, her mind wandered. 'This is potentially the most dangerous part of my journey, I have my wings to slightly direct where I go but for the most part I'm relying on luck to get where I need to go! However since Enel just showed up at Birkans, I know that luffy & crew couldn't be at Skypiea just yet, so I need to find a leg of their journey to join them upon!' With this in mind she came out of the cloud cover that was blocking her view.

Kaska was still tens of thousands of feet above water, but there was a problem. She didn't see any island at all. And she could potentially see a long ways in either direction. So she started using her wings to not only slow her descent down, since her wings gave her lift, but also to propel herself forward since hey, it was better than just any old direction right? She couldn't fly with them, but in this situation she could most certainly use them for her benefit.

After about an hour Kaska back muscles were aching. She had never regretted not using them more than she had at this moment, but at the same time she wasn't willing to stop and die anytime soon. She had to make it somewhere, sure the ocean was big but she was still at least eight thousand feet above the waves.

Three hours in and 4 thousand feet remaining, Kaska was just about to give up when she saw soil in the horizon. 'Thank the lord and everything almighty, I'm not going to die out here today. I can think about what else I need to do once I land and get some sleep in...' she thought fervently. So with renewed vigor she got a little bit closer to the island using her wings before allowing herself to drift down following the path in front of her. 'Ah it can't hurt to get a bit of sleep' She said closing her eyes as her mind was telling her 'No! Don't go to sleep now! You can't!'

When kaska opened her eyes she was almost to the waves- but didn't see land in front of her. Reacting violently she turned around and breathed a sigh of relief, she saw the land behind her about a mile away. She still had time but she needed to start moving NOW. So she used her wings to guide herself again in the direction of the "vearth" as her parents would call it. Tears came out of her eyes as she thought upon them and her brother Vasco, but with renewed determination she made her way back towards where she came from.

Kaska found a problem, she was still about 1000 meters away from land, she could see pirate ships on the other coast and a weird looking mansion from where she was at. 'This is curious, but I have bigger problems to worry about' Kaska thought as she landed in the water and started swimming towards the mansion upon the land closest to her. She watched in solemn silence as her cloud balloon dissipated in the ocean after a few minutes. Her body was still achingly tired after her trek though, and her back felt like it was on fire. Eventually she was close to land, but she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. 'I must make it I can't fail here, to fail would be a disgrace to my training of my body and a disgrace to the rebirth that I suffered' She thought as she kept swimming towards land slowly.

Somewhere in her haze of swimming and struggling to stay alive, she felt a large burly arm wrap around her. She heard "Now what is someone like you doing out here, and how curious she has wings." She felt herself being dragged along by this guy but Kaska was so dead tired at this point she let it happen and blacked out.

When Kaska opened her eyes, she found herself in a small bed in a small half-circle room. Struggling she sat up in this strangers bed, cautiously looking around to have her strength leave her once again and lay down in the relative comfort of the bed she was put into.

When Kaska opened her eyes again, she heard a gruff voice "hey your finally awake". Startling up, she heard the voice say "Slow down there girl, you've been unconscious for about a week now". Opening her sky blue eyes, she was staring into the face of a man she knew very well, Monblac Norland. Thoughts started racing through her head, if she was here then she could potentially join up with luffy's crew when he came here, she had to play her cards correctly though. Sniffing something good, Monblac gave her a bowl of porridge that he had made for himself telling her "You need to eat if your going to survive girl, I was able to give you water to keep you hydrated but I couldn't feed you with you unconscious." With trembling hands Kaska took the bowl and started scarfing it down, but halfway through the bowl she felt extremely full and felt sick after eating so quickly. Monblac laughed at her expense telling her "You won't be able to eat all that I'm sure your stomach shrunk down after not eating" Kaska nodded softly. "Now then girl, I have a few questions for you. What's your name, why were you out in the middle of the ocean exhausted, and most curiously, why do you have wings on your back?" Kaska paused for a moment, realizing most people would freak out at the sight of her wings, they were probably going to trouble her for the majority of the time she was on the blue sea.

"Well sir, my name is Kaska and the last two questions can be answered together. The reason I have wings is all of my people had them. I come from a place of legend and folklore, called Birkans, which happens to be a island in the sky" Monblac's eyes hardened as she continued. "I was out in the sea because I took a cloud balloon down from my island when an external threat presented itself to me". She said with a cautious look in her eyes.

Monblac cautiously asked her "did you ever happen to see a city of gold up there?" Kaska thought this was where she needed to play her hand, she could use some of her foreknowledge of this land to advance her position and achieve what she desired. "No but there were stories told in my island about another sky island called skypiea, which was rumored to be in a Millenium Cumolonimbus cloud rather near ours" Kaska replied to Monblac.

"I have heard rumors of such a cloud, that never precipitates rain, and perhaps if there is such a place then I could finally clear my family's name. Oh yes I never introduced myself, My name is Monblac Norland, relative of the famous liar Montblanc Norland" he said with spite in his voice. Kaska chose not to pursue asking about his family, as she had already known. Instead she asked about getting to sky island. Monblac replied "Well, there happens to be a stream that is considered a natural occurrence around here that is created by a series of underwater caves and the water comes jutting out, creating a so called "knock up stream"." Kaska replied "Well I'm very interested in going up there to prevent the same thing that happened from my island happening there, where a gigantic lightning storm destroyed my home, and if I happen to get up there I can bring you proof that your relative wasn't a great liar after all." Monblac looked thoughtful for a minute, and said "Well the most likely occurrence of the knock up stream will be in 3 months, but I would have no way of getting there myself, and I won't be able to gift you a boat either. Your welcome to stay here until then, but be careful of going into Jaya proper, it's truly a pirate town and someone like you would be eaten alive there."

"Your probably right" replied Kaska, "but I've also been training my body for the time I left my hometown, I have my own great adventure I wish to go on". "Is this so?" said Monblac. "Then during my free time after diving I will train with you in hand to hand combat, so you can get more experience. In fact, why don't we start now?" Nodding Kaska followed him outside into the field behind his house. Monblac started in his form and launched after Kaska with a strong right kick aimed at her head. Kaska blocked it with her arm, budging from the force of the kick, and returned the blow with a right jab at Monblac's stomach. He grunted receiving the blow, then returned the favor grinning.

After 2 hours they returned to Monblac's house, Kaska's was sporting black eyes and bruises all over her body. Nonetheless, she bowed to Monblac, thanking him for the training that he gave her.

This process repeated over the next few weeks, and after a month Kaska was finally holding her own. Of course Monblac was still winning, but Kaska had never had any training of any kind before besides her own. He made sure to compliment how she kept her body in shape, and from what she saw of his he definitely kept his in shape as well. Their spars would now last for several hours before they retired back to the house, and Monblac spoke up when they when back to the house "To be honest Kaska, there's not much more I can do to help your form anymore, practice will really help you be better at this point. I will continue to have small spars with you but you need to find your own way to get better, I do have my own life I need to go about fixing, and to do that I need to do more diving". Kaska simply nodded, understanding and thanking him for the time that he spent with her. "Your still more than welcome to come back, but maybe you should go check out Jaya, maybe you will find someone interested in finding the knock up stream while I'm out diving, and you can come back here for our spar and dinner" Monblac informed her.

Kaska acknowledged Monblac's statement and went to bed.

The next couple of weeks Kaska kept her head low, these pirates were definitely a rowdy bunch. She kept her eye on the bounty board, making sure she knew of the famous pirates around the area, and ducking low whenever she saw someone that would be a threat. People still constantly asked about her wings, with guys seeing her as an alone target, so she tried to avoid going into Jaya as much as possible. She also met the two sub-captains of Norlands pirate crew during this time, who were a loud and rambunctious sort who used diving equipment to help Norland search.

With a couple of weeks remaining till the knock up stream would hit, she heard rumors that a certain Belammy was in town. She knew that he did whatever he wanted, and not to mention he had an eye to keep attractive women around him, whether he had to buy them or take them. So during this time Kaska decided it would be simply better if she stayed with Norland, the day before the knock up stream hit the straw hat pirates would arrive, and she would beg them to let her join them to go to Sky Island.

The day before the straw hats would arrive, Kaska made sure she had everything in order. She had stolen some money from some pirates in order to get a decent wardrobe, and made sure that all of her stuff was cleaned and packed up. Monblac noticed this and asked her if she was leaving. "I will hopefully be leaving in two days, if I can't find a way to go to Sky Island I will be forced to continue on my journey, as much as I need to keep my people safe." Kaska said. After everything was packed Kaska went and stayed outside, making sure to focus her resolve. If she couldn't bring her Haki to the front when it mattered, then there would be no way for her plan to come into effect. 'I must succeed here, for this part of my journey is the most crucial, when I bring my haki out I will truly become a legend upon this sea and the grand line, But I absolutely have to make it here. For revenge for my family and for all the dreams I have shared'. Kaska thought fervently.

Kaska went into town after this to buy the last couple of items she needed, some food for the journey including a couple of fruits, vegetables, a couple cuts of meat, a long wooden stake in the shape of a walking stick, and a pumpkin. She made sure to pack these items carefully, after she had barely avoided "bigknife Sarquiss" Bellamy's first mate. Kaska went to bed and prepared for the big day tomorrow, where her dreams would be realized or they would fall to the ground in shambles.

When Kaska woke up, she was extremely excited. Today was the big day after all. She waited till about noon to leave. Norland had already left to do his diving for the day, grabbed a backpack she purchased, along with a trunk, leaving her trunk in her house and she went into Jaya. Kaska happened to forget though, that while luffy and crew were here today, there was a more extremely dangerous crew here. She had seen Jesus Burgess in town, whom she had totally ignored – forgotten that the blackbeard pirates were here as well! Kaska walked into a bar in town where all the patrons were being help up, literally by hands. So Kaska had found one of her "targets".

"Are you folks sure that you haven't heard anything about Sky Island? Our log pose sure thought it was there" said Nico Robin. "No we know nothing about that folklore, but maybe Monblac Norland on the other side of town would know something, here's a map of jaya. Monblac is over here" a random patron said pointing at the south side of the island. Kaska decided this was her time to speak up "Excuse me Miss... Did I hear you ask about Sky Island?" Kaska spoke softly. Nico turned her head towards Kaska, eyes glancing over her wings before returning to her face.

"Sure I was asking about Sky Island, but I'm guessing you would know more about it than these kind folks here would know wouldn't you?" Nico said with an intelligent smile. "Yes I do happen to know more about it, maybe we can find somewhere a little less rambunctious to talk?" Kaska said hopefully. "That would be fine"Nico replied as she followed Kaska out of the bar. Kaska sat down at an outdoor table next to Nico. "Well first off I'll introduce myself, My name is Kaska and I'm originally from a Sky Island, it just happens to not be the one you are aiming for." "That's curious..." Replied Robin "I'm guessing based on your wings that most people there have wings as well? I'm nico robin by the way, it's a pleasure to meet you." she said with a underlying grin. "It is nice to meet you Miss Nico, I'm assuming based on your questioning of the patrons that you are trying to get to Sky Island?" Kaska inquired. "Yes my crew and I are trying to get there, I'm assuming that you would know how?" Nico replied intrigued.

"Yes I do, I'm also searching for a way to get to Sky Island, but I didn't happen to have a way to get there, would you mind if I tagged along with you?" kaska asked pleadingly. "Well I wouldn't really see that as a problem, but in the end it's not my choice. That would be up to my captain." Nico said. "Ah I understand would you mind if I could ask this captain myself?" kaska questioned. "That certainly won't be a problem, after all you have the information that we need anyways. Let's go to the ship they went to go search for information on their own."

Robin lead Kaska over to where the Going Merry was docked. "AHH ROBIN-CHWAN!" Yelled sanji. "Would You like a bath or to eat first? And who is this cutie next to you?" Sanji yelled with hearts in his eyes. "Where did Robin go?" Asked chopper. "I went out shopping and I also looked for clues to Sky Island, I brought back this map and this girl here" All of the crews eyes instantly stared at Kaska as she spoke up "Ah Hi My name is Kaska and as you can see by these" as she fluttered her wings "I originally come from a sky island that is similar to the one your log pose indicates there." Kaska pointed to the log pose on Nami's wrist. Sanji dashed over to Kaska then with hearts twirling in his eyes. "Angel-chan would you please go out on a date with me? Robin-chwan you still haven't answered me whether or not you would like a bath or something to eat." Robin looked at sanji and smiled saying "I'd like something to eat if you don't mind." Sanji danced away to the kitchen shouting something like right away Robin chwan.

Nami's eyes lightened for a moment. "So your saying after all of this sky island is real?" Kaska nodded with a reply "Of course miss...? If you'd like proof I have something you might enjoy" She reached inside her backpack and took out something that looked like a shell. "Here is what I call a lamp dial" Kaska pushed the dial on the side and light such as you'd see from a lamp appeared. "This is a dial that is useful for household things, although there are many more powerful combat oriented dials this is just an example". Luffy walked over to Nami while saying "shishishi see Nami? Sky Island was there all along" Nami replied "Yes I do suppose you are right"with a smile on her face.

Ussop went over to the dials and wore an amazed expression on his face "These things are super incredible I wonder what I could do with one of those". Kaska interjected politely "Perhaps we could find you one that you would really enjoy, and on that note I was wondering if I could talk to the captain of you awesome little group here". Luffy again laughed and launched himself over towards Kaska. "shishishi sure Kaska I'm Luffy by the way" he said reaching out to shake Kaska's hand. Kaska put on a smile and said "It's great to meet you too Luffy. You see I was hoping that I too could get up to Sky Island. I have a sad past because something destroyed my home, and my family along with it, but I want to make sure that doesn't happen to the people of this Sky Island! Irregardless I can't abandon my family even if I never knew them... I have to save them from the fate that I couldn't save my home from." Luffy looked dead serious for a minute. "In that case, sure. We're heading up there anyway and besides, we still need you to show us exactly how to get to this sky island."

Kaska looked relieved and said "Thank you so much, this means a lot to me. I can't let another island fall victim of the disaster that happened there. By the way were going to need to go around to the south side port, right where Monblac Norland is." Luffy laughed "shishishi you heard her! Let's head over there" as the crew undocked the ship. Zoro spoke up now "So Kaska, if you couldn't stop this disaster before what makes you think you could stop it now?" Kaska had a twinkle in her eye "Well before I was on my own and had no forewarning for the islanders. This time I hope to change both of those things." Zoro stared down at her "So are you using us then?" Luffy put her arm around Kaska saying "No need to be worried Zoro we'll definitely help her." Zoro rolled his eyes at Luffy's typical behavior.

Kaska started up again "I appreciate the help Luffy, but I'm sure since you guys seem like good people when we get there you will want to help just as much as I do." Ussop started crying "I think I have scary-disaster-island it is." Luffy stretched one of his arms around him and dragged him back in "Come on ussop everything will be fun shishsishi." Kaska smiled as she recognized a familiar ship in front of me. Yelling out "Hi shoujou! I found some people who want to take me to sky island, follow us back to Monblac's house!" Shoujou nodded and directed his ape like crew to steer the boat towards their base of operations.

AN: I think I'm going to leave it here for now this is already super long o.O Thanks for the follows guys :3 I appreciate every single fav or follow I get!


	3. Chapter 3

Wavering Faith Chapter 3

Disclaimer - I don't own One Piece - all of those rights go to Eiichiro Oda who dedicated his life to his story!

Shoujou followed luffy's ship over to the south side of Jaya. During this Luffy introduced his crew to Kaska while Kaska took the time to shake each ones hand. Eventually they reached the other shore line where they saw the "wall" that appeared like a mansion which was Monblac Norlands house.

Docking their ship, Luffy & crew followed by kaska and Shoujou behind them, they saw Norland and the other sub-captain Masira talking. Shoujou went over to Masira and threw an arm around him.

Monblac looked over curiously at the group, stating "Normally I would believe you are here to steal my gold, but seeing as how Ms. Kaska is with you all, I'm assuming you are trying to get to Sky Island?"

Luffy replied "Shishishi That's right ossan! Our log pose is pointing towards the sky so that's going to be our next journey!" as he walked towards Monblac "My name is Luffy and this is my pirate crew!" he said gesturing to his crew behind him.

Monblac looked curiously at the crew and replied "Well if your going to Sky Island I'm guessing Ms. Kaska here asked if you would take her as well?". Luffy replied "Of course!"

"Well then I had better explain how we are going to get there, now shouldn't I?" Monblac stated as he launched into an in depth explanation of the knock up stream and that they would need to have Shoujou and Masira apply to their ship before the end of the night.

Usopp however had his doubts and voiced them vehemently "So you expect us to believe that not only is this place real, but that we are supposed to leave tomorrow and coincidentally will be the day we need to hit this stream to go up to sky island, where most people fall down and die? Your a liar, just like your relative!"

Monblac looked down took a breath and said "All of what I said was true, although I can't guarantee a 100% chance, it will likely be your greatest chance to reach said Island. And after all, I'm not doing this for you comrade, I'm doing this so this girl can save her island" He finished pointing at Kaska. "Now come in here and enjoy dinner and my hospitality for the short time before you leave!"

Luffy laughed and followed Monblac inside while his crew followed suit. Usopp apologized to monblac once inside and luffy yelled "Hurry up and let's eat!"

After dinner Monblac let luffy know that he would need to find a south bird, which was essentially a bird that would point south at all times. Kaska decided that she would join luffy in searching for this south bird, so they made their way out to the forest to catch one.

After many troubles of wild animals attacking them and such, they had finally captured one and went back to Monblac's house. As soon as they reached over there, they found Monblac Shoujou and Masira bleeding out on the ground. Kaska froze wondering what she missed. Rifling through her memories, she found something about Bellamy coming to take his gold. Kaska swore in her head, totally forgetting about this happening.

Luffy ran over "Mister are you awake?" Monblac chuckled saying "sorry we couldn't help, there's still time though before dawn we must absolutely enhance the ship..."

Luffy replied "What are you talking about? This isn't important right now. Tell me what happened." Monblac replied that they took the gold while Nami pointed out the Bellamy pirate symbol posted on his house.

Luffy said "We still have some more time before dawn right? And if I run across the beach I can make it to that town?" Robin acknowledged this fact and let him know it would be 3 hours before dawn.

Kaska chose this moment so speak up "Luffy let me join you, Monblac has taken care of me for the last 3 months, I will make Bellamy pay." Luffy told her if she joined he wouldn't make it back in time. "I do suppose your right... Hurry back and make him pay for doing this to an innocent man"

Luffy with his gaze darkened said "Don't worry I will" as he ran down the coastline. After he left, everyone started helping gather supplies and the such while chopper attended to Monblac and his sub-captains.

Eventually they finished the renovations to their ship, and everyone was waiting around for luffy to rejoin them. Kaska had already packed her things on the renovated ship with wings. Nami started up "He's 45 minutes late already! How dare he be so late it's already morning!." Chopper mentioned that maybe luffy was beating and Nami finished "If he's beaten I won't forgive him even if he comes back!"

At that moment luffy chose to run out of the forest having a giant beetle carry the gold ."I'm back guys!". Everyone chose to breath a sigh of relief while Luffy thanked Monblac for the ship. "Yosh, let's set sail!"

Everyone hopped on the ship, while Monblac's sub-captains rode alongside behind them escorting behind. Eventually they started to see the sky darkening behind them as the Millennium Cumulonimbus cloud appeared. Shoujou used his Sound devil fruit ability to locate where the knock up stream was occuring. "It's at 10 o clock!" he shouted as Chopper and Usopp turned the helm of the ship while Nami navigated.

The waves started getting extremely turbulent, as a extremely huge whirlpool started. It looked as if the whirlpool went down to the very bottom of the ocean. Usopp was crying, Luffy was laughing, Nami was super worried along with robin, Sanji was shouting about protecting everyone and Zoro looked downcast but serious. Kaska thought 'It's finally here, the knock up stream. And if any luck by the time we come down again much will have changed' she thought excitedly. Although she had to admit getting sucked into a giant whirlpool had her holding onto the second deck railing extremely nervous.

Sea monsters were appearing before them, also being sucked into the vortex. Luffy consoled Usopp about them regretting it for the rest of their lives if they missed this opportunity. Eventually the waves flattened out and the whirlpool completely stopped.

Kaska and luffy heard shouting from behind them "Zehahahaha I have finally found you Straw Hat pirates! I will be coming to collect your 100 million and 60 million bounty straw hat luffy and pirate hunter zoro!". 'Oh I totally forgot about them, and even worse they're going to take Ace after this. This was a terrible thing to forget about, how could I? There isn't much I can do to change the fact now though, and after this it won't matter much anymore' Kaska thought solemnly.

At this moment, the knock up stream blasted with a tremendous amount of force into the sky, bringing the Going Merry with it. 'Were actually flying on the side of the knock up stream, this is incredible!' Kaska thought while she laughed. The ship started to tilt up as a sea king fell before them. "Hurry set down the sails! The wind is rising vertically so we need the lift if were going to stay on this ship!"

The crew hurried and brought down the sails, while kaska hung on for dear life (she hadn't been shown how to sail yet). The ship actually detached itself from the stream, and Kaska screamed 'Did I mess something up? Are we going to die here?' But then the ship started flying with the stream, because the force of the wind was so intense.

The ship entered the cloud, and as it did everyone was drenched underwater. 'I can't breathe, don't take in any water' Kaska thought radically. Eventually the ship blasted out of the sea, and came to rest on top of the white sea. 'We're finally here, today my destiny starts' Kaska smiled with a grin.

"Is everyone okay?" Asked robin and after everyone got their bearings, they peaked over the ship. "It's sooooo white!" exclaimed luffy in excitement. Kaska spoke up "Were sailing on clouds now, this reminds me of my home" She spoke with a grin. Usopp took of his shirt and prepared to dive in. Kaska grabbed him warning "Don't jump in, it's more likely you will fall to the bottom of the cloud since it's density is low. Trust me on this Usopp." He nodded carefully.

Chopper was looking through the binoculars when he saw a ship and someone by it, however shortly after the ship exploded. He looked pale and shortly after, a man riding on waver jets appeared. "Eliminate" he started but before Kaska stood out. "Please wait just a moment, have you heard of Enel?"

The man paused for a moment. "Then it is just as bad as I thought, I'm from the island of Birkans and it was destroyed by that evil monstrosity. I'm here to prevent the same thing to this one" Kaska yelled out.

The man studied her cautiously for a moment, then turned to leave but remarked "I don't know how you plan on that girl, but since it's obvious your a sky person I will let you go and only this once" as he left them alone.

A bird flew out of the sky after, with an old man on it. "Did he leave? How curious. I am the knight of the sky Gan Fall. Everyone gets a free service but it seems that you didn't need mine yet. Are you citizens of the blue sea?"

Nami spoke up now "Yes we are we just came up from the knock up stream, also this lady here, Kaska, is from another Sky Island called Birkans." He looked at Kaska thoughtfully then asked what brought her here.

Kaska replied honestly "My previous home was destroyed by a monstrosity of a man, named Enel, and I wanted to come here to protect this island from such a terrible fate happening as well".

"He destroyed it?" Gan fall asked again and at Kaska's nod he was furious. "Then Enel must be stopped and now, as a previous god it is my duty to protect this land. Here is a whistle, especially since you chose the dangerous knock up stream instead of the other route here. Call me if you need me!" As Gan Fall took off into the sky.

"This still didn't answer how we get up and out of this sea.." remarked Robin. Kaska let them know that there should be a gate somewhere, if we keep sailing we should find it. Kaska spoke up "Listen, if this Enel is here then he will be able to hear us speak, as his devil fruit will allow him too. So while we are up here can we avoid talking about my goal to save this island? Enel will bring his holy judgment upon me"

The crew nodded nonetheless even though they looked supsicious. They quickly found the heaven's gate and found an old grandma that took a picture of them. "You must each pay a billion extol to get to the white white sea, you can choose to pay or not to pay." The grandma said. "I'm not a fighter or a soldier I just want to know your intentions." Kaska thought 'Well this is in my advantage, I know they won't pay and become enemies of Enel anyway, so I won't speak up here.'

A speedy shrimp started taking their ship up the waterfall after Luffy and crew said they'd be going on ahead. Eventually they came out upon the white white sea. "It's so incredible looking" Sanji commented. They went over to the shore line of cloud and disembarked upon the cloud-ground.

Luffy chopper and Sanji all started running around and playing, while Nami robin and Zoro relaxed in the cloud. They quickly found a white fox come up to them, while a girl named Conis quickly found them and introduced herself. Shortly after Conis's father came from behind them riding on a waver. "Heso Conis!" he yelled in greeting.

Shortly after everyone started hanging out, while luffy rode the waver taking turns with nami. They then followed Conis and her father up to their house where they lounged in comfort and Conis introduced them to a couple of dials. Conis's father pulled Kaska off to a side and asked her what she was doing here "I'm traveling with these kind people" Kaska replied. "Is that so..." Conis's dad looked down with a downcast expression.

Conis spoke up here "Where is that girl, Nami? I have a bad feeling about this... On this place there is actual soil, and that is where the God of Upper Yard lives." Kaska looked at Conis sharply. Soon after the white berets, police of upper island came over to where Luffy and crew were. He spoke up sharply "We are looking for these 8 illegal intruders, class 11 criminals"

"We are criminals?" Luffy asked. Robin spoke up "It sure seems this way, we didn't pay the entrance fee"

The white beret member spoke up "Don't worry this isn't the end, after you serve your punishment you can go back to being regular tourists. Instead of 8 million extol, you will need to pay 80 million extol." After this he pointed at the straw hats broken waver - "If this is you who broke it your class 10 criminals"

Luffy spoke up "No it's mine!" The white beret then said "Since you stole it then you are now class 9 criminals!" Nami then chose this moment to come back on her waver, hearing the cost of the fine being 8 million beli. "That's ridiculous!" She yelled crashing her waver into the guards face.

Furiously the guard yelled "That's it! I sentence you all to cloud drifting!" As the group started to knock arrows and fight the straw hat crew. Luffy soon knocked them down, and they said that now we were class 2 criminals and we would be judged by the other enforcer of the land. Kaska smirked as she heard this 'Perfect now Luffy and crew will go to face the priests of upper yard, exactly how this should go' she thought.

Nami decided that they would leave Sky Island, and Luffy was excited to start his new great adventure now that they were criminals. Luffy left with Usopp and Sanji with conis's dad. Kaska knew that when they left they were going to be guided to the vearth anyway, and there wasn't going to be such an easy escape out of this. "It's unlikely were going to escape now, we could leave but they're going to guide us over to where we will be judged, regardless of whether or not we want to" Kaska brought up.

Chopper and Nami looked devastated. "We have to try anyways" Said nami while they got on the ship again. Soon though a super speedy shrimp picked up their ship and brought it over towards the vearth, eventually dropping it upon a giant sacrificial altar.

Zoro then tried to swim in the water to get to the shoreline, but a monster tried to attack him when he did, until Zoro cut it open. "Damn we won't be able to swim across." He said vehemently. "And with our ship in this condition, there's no way to put it back in this water. We will have to find another way across."

They quickly spotted a vine that could get them across. Robin Nami and Kaska all offered to go, for each having their own reasons. "We're leaving the ship to you chopper!" Zoro yelled while chopper nodded with the whistle around his neck. They left the ship behind going to search around the area.

AN : The storyline is going to differ slightly at the end of this arc, but it is going to take huge diversions from then on.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Wavering Faith

Disclaimer - I don't own One Piece - all of those rights go to Eiichiro Oda who dedicated his life to his story!

Quick note - I didn't edit this so if there are errors sorry! I wrote it quickly before dinner and i'm starving! hehe

Kaska Zoro Nami and Robin were traveling along the vearth, looking for clues as to their location. Kaska was keeping an eye out for unfriendly people, when Nami thought she saw something interesting so they had her follow her. When they got to the coast, they happened to see the other half of Monblac Norlands house.

"So this is Jaya then, just blasted into the sky. The only way this is possible though is from the knock up stream." Robin nodded at her statement, non-verbally agreeing with Kaska. Finding out some more information, they decided to head back to the ship to check on Chopper and think about what they were going to do next.

After Kaska Zoro Nami and Robin got back to the ship, they saw the Going Merry in shambles. It's mast was broken, it looked like parts had been charred from fire, and most worrisome, they didn't see Chopper. Nami called out for Chopper, until he came out crying. Nami consoled him, while Luffy Sanji and Usopp came from another river flowing into the inlet the Merry was on. "Heyyy Guysss!" Luffy yelled as the crew came aboard.

They listened to chopper as he told a story about the knight, Gan Fall coming to save him and the ship while Sanji spouted to Nami about passing a trial of love for her. Kaska snickered at Sanji's actions, they were obviously in a fight and yet all he cared about was impressing the girls. Since the Merry was in terrible condition, the crew decided to stay the night where they were at.

Before everyone went to sleep, Usopp brought up an interesting topic. He was talking about the "mantra" that the priests were using to predict the Straw Hat's movements. Kaska spoke up here, using more of her future information. "Actually, I've heard stories of such a power. It's true name is Haki, and it comes in 3 different forms. There's the first, and most common, arnament Haki. This basically allows you to coat your body in your willpower, and it is extremely hard. I've been working on this, and I think I'm close. I just need a push in the right direction."

Kaska continued with her story "The second is observation Haki, which as you saw, allows you to predict what is going to happen a few seconds in advance. This is really useful for avoiding attacks, but it doesn't increase your power and is hard to master."

"The third kind of Haki, and the most rare, is conquerors Haki. They say that most fights between high level people, such as Red Hair Shanks or whitebeard, are fought with this kind of Haki. If you unleash it, it causes people who's willpower can't stand it to collapse unconscious."

Luffy sounded excited "shishishi, I wish you could show me that sounds so interesting!" The other members of the crew all looked intrigued, Zoro especially. Kaska replied to Luffy "Maybe before this trip ends you'll get to see armament. You've already seen observation though. I wish I could be more of a help, but all I could tell you is to focus your resolve. And for once you plan to go to the new line, you'll definitely need this, so during your off time you should practice!" Kaska honestly had no idea if this would change something drastically, maybe they would be stronger before sabody archipelago and Kuma wouldn't send them flying, but we will see.

Everyone looked resolute after hearing this. Nami spoke up now "About this island, we found that it is actually a part of Jaya that was sent here flying, more than likely a direct occurrence of the knock up stream. Which means that there will be gold here!" Nami exclaimed with dollar bills in her eyes. 'It's funny how everyone is so expressive with their eyes, to be honest it kind of looks creepy' Kaska thought.

Luffy yelled "Yay treasure hunt!" The Straw Hat crew then started preparing dinner, and a plan to go to the right eye of "jaya's" skull tomorrow. They built a huge fire to Nami's dismay, and had a wild party. Kaska danced along with them, laughing at how silly they could be, essentially acting like a child again. She kind of missed it, since she did grow up a second time without a childhood. But that was her own choice so she wasn't down about it.

Eventually Usopp came back with Zoro in the morning, and said that the going merry had been fixed. Smiling Kaska joined them as they made their way over to the ship, where it was put back together without the wings that had been put on to allow flight.

The straw hat crew then split into 2 groups, one of which was taking the going merry, and one of which was going on foot. Nami Sanji Usopp and Gan fall toko the boat, while Kaska Luffy Zoro Robin and Chopper went on foot. Eventually Kaska heard something loud breaking grass behind them. Startled she turned around to find a giant python!

The snake started barreling at the group, Luffy used his devil fruit to bring himself up a tree, Robin did the same, while Kaska and zoro dodged and Chopper went the other way. The snake continued to chase them, which frankly was terrifying to Kaska, until the group except Kaska and Zoro were separated. Kaska said "Well, I'm glad I ended up with you, if I wasn't here then you'd probably get lost. Teehee"

Zoro scowled at Kaska "Oh whatever angel girl, let's just find our way back to them." "Hai!" kaska replied as they started moving in the direction they thought was the group. Soon enough they ran across a fellow with a goat-like head. Zoro was about to step in, but Kaska said "I've got this, we can't waste time here".

Zoro nodded and kept going while Kaska got into her form. The goat-like fellow charged her and Kaska parried his first punch with her left arm, and sunk a right fist into his stomach. Not letting up her attack, she pivoted on one foot and swung her ankle into his head. He hit the ground, starting to get back up and Kaska sunk one of her knees into his stomach, causing him to lose consciousness. 'Well that was easier than I thought it would be' Kaska exclaimed within her head. She rushed back to catch up with Zoro, but saw several explosions in front of her.

Kaska reached Zoro just as she saw him holding one sword, warning the man in front of him "If you have a pistol I have a cannon, now come at me. 36 POUND CANNON!" as Zoro swung his sword releasing a strike through the sky that cut the gunman down. Kaska spoke up "Wow that was so incredible! You have to show me how to do that sometime Zoro!" Zoro then smirked and didn't answer her request, but instead saying "yes it was quite exceptional".

Kaska motioned for Zoro to follow her "Quickly Zoro, we must reach our destination." They started running once again towards the ruins. After about 30 minutes, they were near the Giant Beanstalk that grew out of the ground when Kaska and Zoro found themselves facing another priest. He introduced himself as Ohm, the priest of the trial of iron with a 0% survival rate.

However the Shandian who they fought earlier on their trip, who called himself Wiper was there, along with the giant snake. Kaska soon saw Chopper and ran over to him, since he was bleeding heavily on the ground. Before she could make it, she ran into a barbed wire made of cloud. Gently peeling herself back from it, the priest explained he had a cloud dial in his sword, which had the property of iron so he used it for traps.

Kaska then gently picked up chopper, making sure he was still breathing while Zoro was squared off against the priests giant dog, Holy. The dog was throwing punches at Zoro for the love of god! Kaska knew she had to do something to help Zoro, as the priest was now using his sword as a whip, which extended out since it was made of iron cloud. Nami soon came with Aisa, and Gan Fall while they accidentally let the snake swallow them whole since it was trashing around.

Soon after, the dog holy ran around setting up a iron barbed wire cage surrounding them. Enel showed up as well and killed a Shandian female who seemed to want to tell Waipa something. 'This is so confusing, I need to take advantage of this' Kaska thought. She started to try to sneak behind the priest, carefully avoiding the traps by moving slowly. Enel vanished after in a puff of lightning, and Kaska kept moving forward.

However, Ohm shot his iron cloud whip towards exactly where Kaska was. 'I have barbed wire on my left and on my right, I can't exactly dodge in this situation. If there is any time I need Haki, it's now. I absolutely can't die here!' Kaska thought fervently and crossed her arms in front of her. 'Please every ounce of my strength I'm begging you. Don't let that spear me in the chest!' The whip hit her arms, and Kaska cried out in pain. Ohm started up "Hm, that's weird that should have flown right through your body. Here's another" as he shot his whip towards Kaska.

Kaska looked on Ohm with a fierce determination, again blocking the whip. It hurt, but not as badly as the first. Yelling out "Zoro it needs to be now if we are not going to fall here!" Kaska charged towards Ohm, while Zoro used his 36 pound cannon. Ohm dodged the strike, and once again threw his whip at Kaska who blocked it again with one arm, feeling the bite of the whip, and threw herself on Ohm's back. "Zoro, no hesitation! Do it now!" She yelled and saw Zoro slash his blade towards them shouting 108 pound cannon!. Kaska fervently again put all her willpower into her stomach. 'Please don't let me die... I'm so close to what I want.' She felt a sting in her stomach and Kaska collapsed upon the ground as the world went white.

Kaska woke up with her vision shady and wavering. Kneeling on her 4 limbs, she vomited blood where she was standing. Quickly her memory returned so she lifted up her shirt to see a cut, not so deep but definitely there and still oozing blood. It looked like it was clotting, but she knew she had stuff to do. Looking around they weren't in the same area they had been in, they were now at the bottom of the ruins and chopper was next to her. She heard "I don't like shallow women, and it seems that another has rejoined the game" as Enel shocked Robin into unconsciousness. She picked up Ohm's sword from next to him, which she saw his body laying a few meters away, and walked towards Enel.

'At this point, there is no sense in fighting, even if everyone does we will all be killed. We must wait for luffy to rejoin us.' Kaska thought as she walked over towards where the rest of the survivors were grouped. Zoro and wiper were attacking Enel, while Enel smirked and said "How good of you to join us here" towards Kaska. He then electrocuted Zoro until he couldn't move from the pain, and Waipa went on a rampage, using his reject dial to strike Enel's heart.

For a breif moment, Enel lay on the ground, his heart stopped. 'I have to finish him here' Thought Kaska. Unfortunately, a shock of lightning surrounded Enel and he stood up again. "I must admit I am surprised" started Enel "I didn't think I could start my own heart again, but here we are." Enel then proceeded to shock wiper and zoro until they were down for the count. "Now then" enel started again looking at Kaska and Nami "Are you going to fight"? Kaska and Nami both vehemently shook their heads as they followed Enel.

'This is terrible, I know luffy is supposed to stop Enel but at this rate he is going to kill everyone. I never thought I would be so afraid of this man, knowing the Straw Hats story and seeing this man in person, they are two entirely different things. I will follow Enel, I don't want to die here.' Kaska decided.

Enel lead the both of them to a giant ship made of gold, which he called the Arc Maxim. He explained that he was going to go down to the blue-sea dwellers land, and become god there just as he had been god here. Silently Kaska and Nami nodded. Enel started the Arc Maxim's ascent, when Luffy finally showed up. 'Thank you Luffy, now we are both saved. Lightning's natural enemy, the only person before the new world that Enel would need to fear.' Kaska thought, and looked over at nami who seemed to have relief on her face.

Luffy then charged towards Enel, stating that Enel certainly didn't look like a god to him. Enel tried to use his lightning on Luffy, but was extremely shocked when Luffy charged straight through it unaffected. Nami then grew a look of comprehension on her face. Luffy reached his arm out and struck Enel right in the stomach. Enel looked sick as he attempted to fry Luffy once more, as luffy streched his leg out and smacked Enel in the face.

Enel went tumbling into the side of the Arc Maxim, as he sputtered "If it wasn't for you, all of my plans would have come true. Curse you. Why don't my attacks work on you"? To which Luffy replied "I'm a rubberman" and socked enel again in the stomach.

Enel then melded into the arc maxim himself, and when luffy came near, he melted a giant ball of gold onto Luffy's arm. Luffy again fought valiantly, but Enel knocked Luffy's arm with the giant gold ball off of the ship, taking Luffy with it. Enel then laughed, stating how now was the perfect time to destroy the island. A generator somewhere in the ship started to pump out an enormous amount of thunder cloud, and lightning bolts started to hit the ground. "This is what I like to call the Raigo. And now it is time to say goodbye to the island, just one more thing to take care off."

At this point Nami spoke up "I wouldn't join you even if I could!" Enel looked at her in surprise "Oh really? Well then I suppose it's time to say goodbye. Who did you think was going to save you? This girl next to you? She's so consumed by fear she won't move a muscle away HAHA." Kaska couldn't deny it at this point. This man was truly a legend, how she ever thought she could take him down was truly stupidity.

Nami then avoided Enel's attacks with her clima tact, until Usopp who snuck onto the arc maxim with sanji exploded a fire star in Enel's face. Sanji destroyed the Arc Maxim's engines, however it was still floating due to wind dials on the bottom. Enel used his lightning on both sanji and Usopp again, and Nami barely grabbed onto them and used the jet dial on her waver to escape. "Oh well" Enel rused "Looks like it just me and you now girl. Even though your weak, I suppose you are the smartest of the bunch. Now to finish what I started"

Enel then directed the Arc Maxim towards the top of the giant beanstalk, finding the giant bell that the stories told of. "Ah this is perfect, I will be taking this with me! It's beautiful!" Enel brought it upon the ship and then stated "Now I will finally destroy this island." as he smirked. The lightning cloud from raiga grew bigger, and an immense ball charged with lightning descended towards the ground. Enel started laughing as giant bolts of lightning went straight through the ground cloud and vaporized whatever they touched.

However the giant beanstalk started to fall. Kaska looked over and saw Nami and Luffy with his giant gold ball on his hand riding on her waver towards them up the beanstalk. Luffy then jumped off alone, launching from the velocity, and flung himself towards the giant ball of electricity. Kaska looked on in curiosity and in fear when luffy started swinging the ball around in the cloud eventually dissipating it. Enel was furious however and turned into what looked like a thunder titan, reminiscent of Itachi's (from naruto) Susanoo. Luffy unfazed tried to hit enel and ring the golden bell. Enel knocked him off again.

"I refuse to give up! I will ring that bell" Luffy shouted as he started twisting his body for centrifugal force, and launched his fist with the gold bell at enel and the bell. It struck the bell loudly, and knocked Enel unconscious. 'Wait, now is the time. It has to be now!' Kaska thought as she ran over to Enel's body, hovering Ohm's blade above his chest. 'I have to use Haki here, I will finish this!' Kaska thought as she ran Ohm's blade through Enel. Physical red blood seeped out of the hole in enel's body, and Kaska twisted the blade around to make sure his heart was gone.

This left Kaska in a problem though. She was on the Arc Maxim still, and it was falling quickly. Kaska tried to hang onto anything, if she fell off at this rate she would die. She went into the engine room and held onto a pipe. Eventually the Arc Maxim crashed, and she was unconscious once more, completing her task.

When Kaska woke up again, it was on a bed. She had been out for a day, and the straw hats were getting ready to leave. Her stuff was around her when she opened her eyes. "shishishi" she heard "Now that your awake, we can say our goodbye's!" Luffy exclaimed. The rest of the crew was around, with the exception of Zoro who was out loading stuff onto the boat. Kaska blinked away tears, after going through that fear and having all of her hope taken away, to be saved by Luffy, even if she expected it to happen, the terror of having lifes taken away in front of you were very scarring.

Kaska started solemnly "Listen, Luffy. When I started on this journey, sure it was to save my home. And I've always wanted to have a great adventure. But after having everything ripped away twice by that man, to have you save everything I held dear. Luffy, I have a new desire. I want to see you become the pirate king. I want to help you. Nothing could make me happier than to be with you and everyone else. Please, please let me join the crew" Kaska asked softly as she started crying.

Luffy looked at her intensely for a moment, then laughed "Shishishi, of course I'll let you join then! However you'll have to have a job. What do you think you can do?" He asked.

Kaska started "Well to be honest I'm not all that great now, but I'm sure that you'll need someone to help with plans and such. How does a strategist sound? It might not seem all that great but I'll definitely make you the pirate king." she said resolutely.

"Well then that settles that!" Luffy exclaimed loudly. "Come on were going to leave soon!" He grabbed her trunk and Kaska grabbed her bag, following her new captain onto the Going Merry.

AN: Next chapter will be interesting :)


	5. Chapter 5

Wavering Faith Chapter 5

Disclaimer - I don't own One Piece - all of those rights go to Eiichiro Oda who dedicated his life to his story!

Quick note before hand – people were wondering why Kaska didn't fly out of the arc maxim, well she has wings, but they aren't suitable to make her fly. Maybe at some point she will learn how but the reason she used her wings before was because she was on a cloud balloon. That gave her the opportunity to use her wings to move her, not actually fly.

Kaska was loading her things back upon the ship, simply setting her stuff down and going back to the crew. Kaska regretted dropping Ohm's sword, but it was better to keep her life than have a sword. Luffy and Nami were talking about going to steal gold, but since they were late because they wanted to see Kaska wake up, they weren't going to be able too. The crew was simply waiting for Robin to get back to leave.

Robin soon showed up, however she was followed by many Shandians and people from Skypiea who wanted to thank them. Luffy didn't want to deal with it anymore, and just leave, since luffy didn't like being treated like a hero. Before Luffy escaped though, the people of shandia and skypiea brought the crew 6 large people sized sacks of gold. They spoke up "Thank you for defeating Enel, we are giving this to you since you not only saved the bell from being stolen by Enel, but you also brought the Arc Maxim down and we are able to salvage it. Don't even think about returning it!"

Luffy looked at the crowd intently saying "shishishi if that's how it is then I'll accept it. We have to leave though so Goodbye everyone!" The crew then unmoored the ship, and set off towards clouds end, which is where Conis told them to go when they wanted to leave. Nami looked at the log pose, and mentioned it being reset, so they're free to go. Everyone brought down the sails, and started the descent down the cloud road to Clouds end.

Conis from behind them at the descent station said "Good luck with the fall!" Usopp all of a sudden looked sick and simply said "fall?" The Going Merry then going quite fast, jumped off of the cloud road leading off of the Millennium Cumulonimbus cloud. They started falling quickly, and Nami blew a whistle given to her for a balloon octopus. Shortly after, a giant octopus jumped out of the white sea and latched itself upon the Going Merry, which was inflated almost like the Cloud Balloon that Kaska had taken from Birkans.

The fall down was extremely boring to say the least. Kaska excused herself from the group to go look in her belongings. If the show was correct, then her plan should work. Opening her trunk, Kaska searched around for something she packed before hand. Finding it, she grinned. 'Should I offer this to someone other than myself? I know this will drastically change many things having it around, but maybe I don't want the responsibility of this.' Kaska thought with the item in her hand. 'No, I made this plan, I need to follow through on it. Regardless of what I think now, it would be a foolish foolish decision not to use this.'

Going down to the kitchen with her item in hand, Kaska grabbed a fork from the ship's drawers and said hello to Sanji who was cooking. "Hello Kaska-chwan, did you want something?" Sanji asked as he turned around to look at Kaska. When he turned around he saw Kaska sitting at the table, with a pumpkin in front of her that had blue swirls running through it. "Is that what I think it is?" Sanji asked.

Kaska replied to him "Yea it is a devil fruit, I wasn't sure if I wanted to eat it or not, and I thought I made up my mind already but here I am still debating. But I'm done now." Using a kitchen knife to cut open the top, Kaska shoveled the insides of the pumpkin into her mouth. "Bleh this tastes like shit" Kaska remarked after she finished. Kaska instantly felt the hum of the fruits power in her body.

Sanji was curiously looking her over "What does it feel like? Do you know which fruit you had gotten?" Kaska took a second, breathing in. "It feels weird, my body has a hum to it now. I'm not entirely sure your going to like what it is though. Follow me" Kaska then walked over to the side of the ship, speaking up "Hey before I do this, I ought to warn you guys. Come over here." Kaska waited for everyone to gather around. "I was searching around my stuff when I excused myself, and I found a surprise while I was going through it. I had bought a fruit while in Jaya, specifically a pumpkin. When I checked it though, it was no longer a regular pumpkin. While I was sitting in the kitchen, I decided to eat it. I do hope you won't judge me for it or anything"

Kaska then pointed a finger into the sky from the side of the ship. She then launched a bolt of electricity from her finger out of the ship. She then spoke up again seeing horrified faces upon chopper Usopp and Nami's face. "I didn't know what it was when I ate it. I can only assume that when a devil fruit user dies, the fruit is then reincarnated somewhere close by. I'm not going to turn into some sort of demon, and most certainly not a god. I'm still just me and I hope you can see that."

Luffy looked extremely excited, while Zoro and Sanji's mouth was hanging open. Nami and Usopp still looked terrified, while chopper and Robin looked curious. Sighing, Kaska said "I'll give you some time alone to think about it, I know I will need the time after all Enel had done to my family and to me." Kaska then chose this moment to go beneath deck to be alone. Before she left though, she heard Nami stopping Luffy from following, whispering to him.

An hour later, Nami went below deck. "Kaska" Nami called out. "I'm over here" Kaska replied sitting upon some crates. Nami walked over to her, sitting next to her. Nami spoke up "Listen, I'm sorry about earlier. That was just a real shock." Nami then slightly laughed realized what she just said. "Anyways, the way we acted was immature. It's just he was absolutely terrifying. And I'm sure you could be the same way, which is what I thought when I first saw that. I know you've just tried to protect your home, and Luffy was actually really upset with me for being scared. And I realized, I was right."

Kaska looked up at Nami who was sitting next to her "Listen, it was probably a mistake for me to even touch this devil fruit. But I have a dream now. That dream is to make Luffy the pirate king, and I will need every ounce of my strength to do that, and so will you. But it's not just that. I also want to make friends of my own. When I was a kid, I was constantly training. All of my peers around my age made me an outcast. I was different, and they didn't like that. Kids are judgmental you know? But when I saw your crew, and the way you guys treat everyone around you, it felt like the home I didn't have. And I don't want to ever lose that home or anyone in it."

Nami then sitting shocked, grew a big grin on her face. She reached over, hugging Kaska telling her "Then in that case you can start with me. I'm truly sorry for reacting the way I did. Everyone else is excited to see you." Kaska nodded, wiping faint tears from the corners of her eyes. "Okay" Kaska smiled. "Let's go".

Kaska met everyone outside, and was bombarded with questions like "that's so cool! Let me see it again" Or "How does it feel" Or Luffy exclaiming "Can you do that giant person thing like Enel did?" Kaska laughed with a grin. "I can show whoever wants to see again, it feels really strange like I have a constant hum in my body, and no luffy, I don't think I can but after I get practice in maybe!"

Kaska messed around with everyone for a while. Eventually the sea started looming closer and the octopus was getting smaller. Kaska brought everyone's attention. "So in Skypeia, I actually managed that armament haki I was telling you about! Zoro can you attest to that for me?" Zoro nodded "It's true, I cut this girl with my 108 pound cannon, and she avoided the majority of the damage of it. I honestly thought she was a goner."

"See?" Kaska smiled. "Now I want to show you guys it and the process I used to achieve this. I essentially bring my resolve, my determination, or my willpower, whichever word works for you, and I bring it to the surface of my being. If I focus it all in my arm, this happens." Kaska's arm started to gleam a metallic color, but not quite black yet. "I haven't mastered it yet, but that's the basic of it" Kaska remarked.

Luffy started first "Wow that's so cool let me try!" Luffy tried again and again, but couldn't manage it. Kaska brought up "Luffy why don't you imagine yourself ringing that bell again, and that determination you had to do it regardless of what happened." Luffy nodded and tried it again. Kaska could see it start to form, as luffy dropped it. Kaska started "Wow Luffy, I was practicing that for years and years, your haki must really be something for it to have that kind of an effect." Luffy smiled and started playing with chopper again.

Eventually the Balloon Octopus ran out of air, and dropped onto the ship. The Going Merry fell quite a ways, dropping into the sea with a giant splash. The crew then had a discussion about what to do with the money. They were going to split it evenly, but take care of ship repairs first for the Going Merry. They followed the Log Pose's direction when Kaska spoke up again "Listen, If we are going to live for a while, we should keep my power a secret. This is considered one of the greatest devil fruits, and if we are spotted needlessly with it the marines will bear there full force upon us. If I need to use it I definitely will, but we should try and keep it a secret for a while, so you guys can get the hang of haki." Everyone seemed to understand so Kaska let the topic drop.

Eventually, Luffy spotted an island so they stopped at it. The Island ended up just being a plain, with really long or tall animals living there. They saw a tall bear, long cheetah and a bird with a huge wingspan. Eventually they came across a house in the expanse of the plain, and a chilling fear crept across Kaska's heart. If she remembered right... As soon as Kaska thought this, a tall man with an Afro full of black hair came outside. 'No... Aokiji. This isn't good.' Kaska thought desperately. Nico looked absolutely terrified, but Aokiji stated he wasn't there to fight, but to confirm the location of Nico Robin.

He also was going to help an old man who lived on this island, get across to the next one since he was alone here. They walked to the sea, while luffy was exclaiming about Aokiji actually being a good guy.

When they were there, a sea king came up to try and eat the group at the waters edge, but Aokiji reached out a hand into the water and froze everything around for miles. Kaska's heart jumped into her head at that moment. 'What a monstrous ability, all it would take is the flick of his wrist and we would all be ice blocks right now.

The old man profusely thanked Aokiji, who stated his ice would last for about a week before it thawed. Aokiji, sitting on the ground, started up "What a pain. I was originally just here for a walk, but seeing your party's growth maybe I should just kill you here. You guys are only targeting pirates for now, but who knows what you'll set your eyes on. Especially because of you Nico Robin. Every group you have ever been affiliated with was completely annihilated."

Nico chose this moment to ask Aokiji why he was doing this, and used her devil fruit ability to try to break his back. Aokiji shattered, and then rose again from the ice like some strange rebirth. "Tsk tsk I thought you should know better Nico Robin" said Aokiji. Zoro and Sanji took this opportunity to attack Aokiji, and he froze part of their legs. He then reached out for Robin, completely encasing her in ice.

Luffy yelled about leaving robin alone, while Aokiji told him "Don't worry, you could still probably thaw her out, but not if I break her like this!" Kaska didn't think luffy was going to make it in time so she phased over to robin and pulled her away from harms way. "Hmm Elemental Class devil fruit, and quite a powerful one at that. You can't live either." Usopp took Robin from Kaska's hands while chopper followed yelling about thawing her out. Luffy stormed Aokiji, stating "You won't take my friends!" Zoro Sanji and Kaska all stood, prepared to fight, but Luffy told Aokiji "Let's fight, One on one. You and me. No one else interfere."

Aokiji looked at him "Sure, but be warned a fight with me is a fight to the death." Kaska looked at Zoro Sanji and Nami "I will stay, Luffy won't accept all of us here. If I can save Luffy at the end I will. Even if I were to leave he's liable to chase me down still so I don't exist, even if I just got this ability." Aokiji looked at her, nodding his head at acceptance of what she said. Zoro Sanji and Nami left while Kaska stood to the side.

Luffy brought up "I said one on one fight me!" Aokiji nodded. Luffy went to attack Aokiji, who simply froze his arm instead. Luffy then twisted his body, releasing a storm of punches towards Aokiji. Aokiji then used the same ability he used to freeze the ocean. "Ice time" he said quietly while Luffy was frozen solid. Aokiji then looked towards Kaska who was looking on in fear. "One on one huh, I was tricked. If I attacked any of your crew now I'd be breaking a promise. And you girl, for the sake of your captain and since I've never seen you before on their posters, I will keep this quiet. But as soon as we get word of your powers, Miss rumble rumble fruit, we will be sending all of us to you. So you better prepare. And captain, you will soon see the problems that follow Nico Robin. You'll regret your choice."

Aokiji then walked away, as Kaska released a breath of air she didn't know she was holding in. Kaska lifted the frozen Luffy up, carefully bringing him over to the ship.

Shortly after, Chopper was crying about how their hearts were beating again. Kaska again looked down in shame at how she had failed the crew already, letting Luffy fight the dreadful monster Aokiji. The crew decided they were going to stay here today, while everyone rested from the terrifying experience they just suffered.

AN: In canon, devil fruits appear to the closest fruit that is a suitable match to the power. In this case, the arc maxim was leaving near the edge of vearth, and the going merry happened to be nearby, so poof! I appreciate reviews!


End file.
